The Department of Wildlife did some public education and outreach regarding the fish species they've been finding in Baily's pond in Fuji Park, in Carson City.
The park was closed on April 12, 2023, in order to remove invasive fish from the pond, that the Department of Wildlife says are from residents dumping pet fish there.
The Department of Wildlife stresses that just because they're freshwater fish doesn't mean they belong in the pond with the trout. Kris Urquhart, a Biologist for the Department of Wildlife gives examples "We've seen all kind of stuff in our urban ponds from goldfish to jelly fish, to pacus pretty much anything you see in pet stores."
They say a lot of people will own their pet fish for a while, get tired of them or move away. And instead of taking their pets with them, Urquhart says "They'll go to their local pond or river and dump them off and it's really not good for our native fish species or our sport fish composition."
Goldfish, for example, like to go to the bottom of the pond and kick up dirt, making it harder for other fish to get around. Plus, the smaller fish tend to overpopulate, and it doesn't leave enough food for the trout.
Urquhart mentions, "This isn't an issue that's specific to this pond, it's in a lot of our urban ponds we see these non-desirable species like green sunfish, carp and goldfish."
They will be able to get some of the invasive fish out of the pond, but not all of them. The net they use is called a beach seine. They ran the net through the pond twice and ended up catching about 116 sunfish.
Urquhart explains they use this technique because it's, "The only way to really get rid of all the non-desirable species would be to drain the pond completely and start over from scratch, which we'd rather not do."
